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ROSCO LEVEE – young man going right to the roots

Rosco Levee is a 28 year old country blues and roots based vocalist / guitarist from Kent – his debut album was released in February 2012 and received good reviews. He was fortunate have some excellent musicians with him including fiddler Ian Cutler who played in the cult film ‘The Wicker Man’ . Rosco’ s music is catching on and is pleasant change from the endless guitar trios that are saturating the scene. His songs are melodic and one ‘Goldrush’ was highly praised by no less than Glenn Campbell, A good future seems assured

Tell us about your latest albumMy debut album is ‘Final Approach To Home’ it was released on iTunes, Amazon etc and in a beautiful full artwork edition CD from roscolevee.com…on 20th Feb 2012,

How would you describe the musical style? As Country, Blues, Rock N Roll

So what’s happening for you right now?

We’re getting lots of airplay, both sides of the pond, and we can’t wait to crack on and tour the album, so we’re currently sorting out a load of festivals and shows around the UK. The states is on the cards for next year, SXSW in Austin, Texas would be a hell of a festival to do and all the southern rockers in the south are loving the album and we’re getting airplay down there so who knows.!!

Who have you got playing on the album?

On the album I used the same fantastic band musicians I used on my EP released last August. They are Lee Wilson on Keys, Simon Gardiner on Bass and Backing Vocals/Percussion, Andy Hayes on Rhythm Guitars and mandolins and David Tettmar on the Kit. These are the gigging musicians I work with all the time…I managed to get a good mate of mine Duncan Mackay (Primal Scream, Death In Vegas) to sit in on a session and put down some Horn parts. Also another good friend Pete Jackson layed down some banjo on one track and helped out with backing vox and percussion…..we all got in the live room with who ever and what ever was around at the time to do the percussion…had a great time…Ian Cutler who’s a world-wide legend on fiddle came in and just blew us away with 1 take on each track he played on!…and another mate Lee Charles was around messing about with harmonica and ended up doing a great little bit of playing on ‘Whatever you need’

Do you write all of the material?

I myself write all the material, with this first album I’d had a lot of the stuff laying around in various tempo’s and different lyrics etc for a while and we had been gigging some of the tracks live for about a year before we put them to tape. I’m writing all the time, almost everyday I’ll demo something at home and bring it to the guys at rehearsal, sometimes I’ll have everything worked out and others’ songs we may jam some parts out and see where they end up! I’ve already started collecting demos for the next album in fact, I’ve got so much material Im hoping we’ll be able to fit in another EP around May time for release at the end of the summer….I’ve got too much material for an single album…and I don’t fancy a double album as the dreaded 2nd Album…haha….so another EP seems a good thing to do…It will be bit different in that I’d like to do it acoustically…really rootsy kinda vibe…acoustics, mandolins, shakers, dobro’s, banjo’s, fiddle, a load of singers and just bang it out Live in the studio…..real old school.etc

Your musical & lyrical influences?

I started guitar when I was 5, in fact I started on bass for year, but quickly went to guitar, my parents really supported my music growing up and so it was easy for me to keep at it….I’d say my main influences as a guitarist are Freddie King, Peter Green, Eric Clapton, Duanne Allman, Robert Johnson, Chuck Berry, …..But I’m also massively into learning as much as I can from everywhere…..Motown and Phil Spector I love…The Band, Stones, Beatles, Beach Boys I listen to all the time…Elvis, Scotty more…etc Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters !!…I love my old Chicago Blues and Rock N Roll…!…my favourite songwriter and biggest influence as being a songwriter myself has to Delaney Bramlett. His stuff was so diverse and he just blended so much together….amazing!

Regarding melodies we’re interested in where you draw inspiration from Anything and everything that interests me Ill use….I’ll often sit down and the first thing I play will become a song…they are funny things and I don’t really believe I write them, they kinda just come out…I have no idea where they come from or what makes them, but all the while they flow out of me….im not complaining.!!

So what do you write about?

Could be anything BUT …I believe there’s enough political people out there writing stuff, there’s enough young guys writing songs about being dumped on facebook, or myspace or whatever, there’s enough writing about chip shops and chavs….I prefer to write stuff that people can dance to, shake a tail feather to, have sex to, drink to, cry to, whatever……like I said, I don’t really write the stuff, more just let it write itself…

Are you dealing with any current issues like political or philosophical, any of those that concern you and influence your music?

Not really at this point in time, The next album we’re planning though, we are looking into recycled packaging like a digipak from card…and some lovely artwork…trying to be a little Greener!

Which songs are you most proud of?

Goldrush is a favourite live and all the radio stations seem to be loving that one,

Hey Lady is a personal favourite of mine…it came together in one afternoon really and went down to tape really well…its got some great horn parts on it, and when we do it live with the horns it brings the roof down at the end.!

What do you think is the future of the CD?

I’m afraid I still live in a world where a decent turntable and Valve amp decent speakers and a huge LP collection rule! I’d love to release everything on Vinyl with beautiful artwork and decent sound quality!!….but alas the CD has its uses and is a damn sight better than MP3 download where everything is compressed and the only artwork you get is 3cm high on a screen…having said that, ITunes etc is great way to get music straight away on the move without having to find a record shop…….and they hardly exist either.!

Do you think that its right for magazines to demand manufactured CD’s rather than CDR’s for review (bearing in mind the costs, especially to independent artists)

Ermm probably No, maybe considering the CD will probably be listened to a few times, separated from the case, which will be lost in a mountain of other disc cases and never reunited. It is rather expensive.

Ambitions

To make a living from writing some good tunes, travel and play the songs everywhere we/I can and to prove all the people wrong who said I was wasting my time with music.!!

Career highlight

Everytime I play a stage and I see people singing the lyrics and having a good time is a highlight….that and jamming backstage with Alvin Lee in Austria….oh and also Glen Campbell saying ‘Goldrush’ is a ‘TUNE’!

Career lowlight

Not really had one yet, although I did about 5 shows in Austria to a few thousand people each time, and cant remember a thing about them….must of been the water out there.!